1. Bob in KY.
This probably won't win your prize but at IM Kansas 70.3 last year (where they have two transition areas---i.e. T1 is about 0.8 miles from T2) I showed up at the swim and ran into another tri-er (Jeff from California).....The race was to start in about 5 minutes and I said can you help me with my wetsuit.....He said "Dude (So California, but so RIGHT ON) you got the thing on backwards".......Indeed I hadn't worn a wetsuit in a triathlon before and I had the zipper in the front.....Jeff and I quickly got me out of the wetsuit (fastest stripping of wetsuit ever!) and got it on the "right" way. It was a great second half IM for me but I will never forget this learning lesson about wetsuits.
2. RCB in FL.
Going through my usual pre-race routine and hitting the port-a-potty, all was going well. However, having my keys in my hand was not my usual routine, and you guessed it, I dropped them into the porta-potty. When I looked down into the hole, I was fortunate to find out the person before me liked to use a lot of toilet paper and my keys landed right on top of a pile of clean looking paper.
3. PDM in KY.
Not so much me, but a guy I knew in Florida said he did a race one year and had bought a brand new pair of bike shoes. Anyway, he had tried them on with his Speedplays, which he used on his road bike to break them in a few weeks leading up to the race. His triathlon bike had Look-compatible. Race day comes and he puts his shoes on realizing he has the WRONG cleats attached! Determined, he attempted to pedal the bike anyway...he figured he paid for the race so he was going to finish it regardless.
4. AFG in TX.
This happened to my coach but not me so figure I will go ahead and share it. This was a few years ago at Collegiate Nationals. His was going to be the first to start and for some reason he was one of the later people to the port-a-johns. I was in the port-a-john next to him. All of a sudden I hear a pounding on the wall..."Hey Chris is there any TP in your stall?"... "No, sorry all out over here"..."#$*&". I said I would go take a look around see if I could find any for him though and just hold tight. In the massive line of port-a-johns all of them were out. When I get back to his stall the announcer is saying it is time for his wave to form up. Well out he comes walking about as tall and proud as man with two shoes but only sock can........
5. BN in OH.
2010 Sarasota Half Marathon - Getting to the race 30 minutes before the start time (early for me) I have the usual nervous lower GI issues. So off to the Porta-Potty line. Wow, did i really "mess" up this time. The line seemed like it was 100 yds long. So the long wait begins. After what seemed an eternity a young guy in a golf cart stops right next to me. He says there are 50 empty potties at the finish line. NO WAITING! It's only a 1/4 mile away. So a young lady asks "can you give us a ride?" Of course. So 5 of us jump in. I'm on the back riding backwards. It's 7 am and very dark. About a mile later we get to the potties. And yes, there is no line. Of course not! We aren't even close to the starting line. So we do our business. And of course I'm the last one out. But where did everyone go? I don't recognize anything since it was dark. So I begin to get really nervous and I take of running to what I think is the starting area. As I reach the corral area I hear "2 minutes" to start. Cut that one way too close. Why would anyone put most of the potties at the finish area??????
6. Bead in NJ.
I got to a sprint race a few years ago and brought my 2 kids who were 2 1/2 and 5 at the time.
They came with me into transition while I set up my space and there were plenty of others doing the same. The girls waited patiently and I explained what I was doing while I got ready. I stripped down to my tri top and shorts and proceeded to put on my wetsuit. As soon as I got it on my 5 year old honestly announced in her overly loud 5 year old voice 'Daddy, you look so fat in that'. Needless to say that brought on chuckles from the 40-50 other triathletes in the immediate area. Since she got such a response she laughed too and then came up to me a patted my belly to emphasize her point, which brought more laughs. Kids will keep you honest ;-)
7. D in CO.
Before the start of a 70.3 this year I had to go bad, really bad. The porta potty situation is bad as there are none near the start that athletes can use and being in the first wave off M25-29 I was rushing to get my transition set up and at least start to get my wetsuit on when nature called me on line two.
I tried to wait in line as long as I could but I honestly had 13 minutes before I had to be in the water, so goggles and cap on, wetsuit at my waist I made my way to some packing stacked up packing crates next to the 18 wheeler they store the transition racks in(saw them loading it after the race). I essentially tried to make myself as invisible as possible as I leaned against the crates with my trisuit, wetsuit around my ankles and answering the line two call.
I'm sure I was seen by at least fifteen people as a white swim cap against a black truck tire doesn't exactly camouflage anything and I still had to run to join my wave and thankfully a volunteer zipped me up as I was entering the water. I tried to return later to clean up after myself but someone had already done it for me which is equally as embarrassing.
8. SG in WI.
Here is a pre race mishap I had 2 years ago.
Woke up the morning of a sprint triathlon and started to get ready. Took my bike out to the car and put it on the bike rack like any other race morning and I put on the cable and lock that I had been using as my bike was going to be sitting on the car for a while and i just wanted to be safe. Headed back inside to finish getting ready and let the Mrs. know it was time to head out. Got in the car and headed to the race site so that I would get there just as transition opened as I like to be early so I can relax before the race. Got to the site, parked the car, and grabbed my bag out of the back seat. Reached in my pocket for my keys and started flipping through them to get to the key for my lock, after going through them 3 times I thought to myself, "crap, where is the stupid key", somehow it fell off my key ring. Through everything back in the car, yelled to my wife to get in, and sped home. Got home, tore through the house and all of my stuff and could not find the key or even the spare.. Walked into my work shop, grabbed my sawzall and proceeded to cut the cable off, I am sure my neighbors enjoyed that sound at 5:45 AM. Sped back to the race site, and got there 20 minutes before the race. On a side note, this race had turned into a du the week before, and I hate running so I was not happy already. 4 miles into the bike I realized I had no rear break, but could not figure out why I couldn't get my speed up, so I got off the bike and determined that while cutting the cable off I kinked my brake cable and my brake was partially engaged for the first 4 miles. Ended up opening the calipers and going with no rear brake for the rest of the race.
Not sure how embarrassing that is, but it sucked pretty bad that morning. I tried to make the best of it though and did the first run portion of the race with a swimcap and goggles on asking everyone when the swim started.
9. BK in FL
Let me set the scene: I get through the swim to start off my triathlon. Then as I am getting on the bike, I felt the bladder tugging a little, but I thought, eh no big deal, I can make it to the end. Of course I had tried to hydrate well before the race, and was beginning to think I may have to pay for it with a stop to the port-a-potty. I get through the bike, and am running my bike through the transition. Out of NOWHERE, I feel like my bladder is going to explode. And of course I am still wet from the swim, adding to the thoughts of gushing geysers going through my brain. I tried thinking of ANYthing else to get my mind off the ol’ bladder. Well, so much for the power of positive thinking. As I am sitting down in the transition to switch from my cycling shoes to my running shoes, the geyser blows!! And, to make matters worse, there is a guy next to me in the transition, who is chatting about the race and is well within view of my uh….mishap. So, a mysterious trickle appears and is running strangely away from the area of my shorts, and the guy is STILL talking to me. So, I think fast, how do I avoid the awkward question of why there is a stream flowing beneath me? Ah, my water bottle! So, I very obviously say, “OOPS, I DROPPED MY WATER BOTTLE” and proceed to very obviously throw my bottle on the ground, squeezing water out to hopefully mask the other stream that has formed on the ground. Needless to say, I got a strange look, and he probably knew what was going on anyway. I avoided the water bottle for the remainder of the race, rinsed down in the lake afterwards, and changed so my cohorts at the race were none the wiser!
10. RM in ??
First time racing in a wet suit I put in on back to front, and just as I realised what I had done this very pretty girl looked at me and laughed, but to her credit she didn't point out the obvious to anyone else.
Also whilst preparing the bike and all of my equipment for transition I thought I would try the rubber bandy thing (I had practiced it several times), so there I was admiring my handy work and thinking that I'm not a noob anymore until a guy on the other side of the rack pointed out that my shoes were on the wrong pedals.
11. TT in NJ
During one sprint, the cheap, plastic band holding my timing chip on broke during T1. $&*@! The guy at the timing mat quickly took down my race number and told me to check in at every timing mat and hand in my chip to an official and they would record my numbers. Don't worry!
In every picture of me on the course you can see me desperately clutching my little chip for dear life. I faithfully handed in my chip at the end and waited.
I am such a suckah. According to the race results...DNF.
(went out an bought my own ankle strap the next day)
12. R from ?
I received some great advice from a seasoned Ironman friend/mentor of mine regarding nature's call on the bike leg: don't stop for a #1 - just get up off your saddle, relax, and let it go. I wasn't sure I could actually do that, but it turns out it was excellent advice and worked. What she assumed I'd know, but didn't actually mention, was that I should move the water bottle out of the seat tube cage before trying it. D'oh.
13. BP in NC
OK. This is more of a funny story about my boss than an embarrassing story about me, but it needs to be told, this seems to be the right place to do so. I have worked for the same man in North Carolina since 1983. Charley is a great guy, usually he has the most uncommon combination of intelligence & common sense, he is the type of guy everyone likes. He has always been behind all of the crazy endurance stuff I put my body through. He was very understanding during my run up to AZIM09, my first 140.6. Race day is upon us and he had previously told me that he was going to follow me on line. His wife has told me that he was never far away from the computer during that day checking my progress. He fully understood about the midnight deadline. He watched and watched until it finally hit midnight, I was not yet finished. Sadly he turned off his computer and turned in for the night. His wife asked how I did, assuming I was done because he was in bed. He told her that I didn't finish in time. She asked, "Isn't this race in Arizona?" It was only than that the time zone difference occurred to him. By the time he fired up his computer and hooked up to Ironman.com athlete tracker, I had finished. He missed what he had waited all day to see.
14. EEM in MN
Picked up my race packet the night before...everything is laid out nicely at home. Next morning set up my transition area with no problems and it's finally time for my wave to wander in the water. I am about to put my cap on and do a little warm up. MY CAP is ONE piece of latex! PANIC. After messing with it forever- with 2 minutes to the horn I fly back on shore and how lucky I was that the MC (of all people?!?!) has a box of extra caps and had one blue one left. Not the most embarrassing story, other than I was the girl who ran OUT of the water VERY frantic BEFORE she began and ran back in as the horn was going off. PS The rest of the swim was awful as my heart was beating about 220 before the horn even went off. I'll never assume my race-issued cap is actually a cap anymore. Lesson learned.
INSTRUCTIONS:
The person with the most votes by 5pm May 14, wins! I'll contact you and get your sock order going!
READ THIS! - If you vote, you will be entered into a raffle for you're own pair of socks! When you vote, choose the story number AND choose "other" and type in your initials, your state and a 3 digit number that I can identify you by if you win the raffle! You get burrito powered socks to go along with the port-a-potty horror story theme! You will also get a BONUS entry into the raffle if you "like" FalkeeTriathlon" on facebook and post the comment "I voted on the embarrassing story contest" by the voting deadline! Up to 2 chances to win socks in the voting raffle! YOU CAN'T GO WRONG WITH THAT!!! Vote on your favorite story using THIS LINK.
Check back in May 17th to see who won the voting and who won the raffle so you can claim your socks and give me your size!!
DISCOUNT OPPORTUNITY!!!
TriVillage has graciously offered a discount code for readers of my blog. Use code triblog to receive a 10% discount on any order you place at http://www.trivillage.com/!
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